Social media is gaining strong momentum in the technology marketing landscape. Technology firms, of all sizes and with varying budgets, are recognizing the limits of traditional advertising and are turning to non-traditional means to promote their products. Due to the nature of social media and the broad range of messaging opportunities available, the vehicle makes for an effective marketing tool.

Social media, a platform for interaction and networking, differs from traditional media that tends to be one-way communication that provides a platform for delivery of advertising. Social media changes advertising because it allows marketers to interact with consumers; this can be seen as pull marketing where you are pulling customers in rather than pushing out messaging with the traditional form of push marketing. Drawing consumers to products and allowing them to interact with the company and its CEOs, adds a face to the usual faceless technology company. This can allow the company to connect with its demographic in an optimal way, using technology.

Word of Mouth

Social networking sites harness the power of age-old word-of-mouth recommendations. Using existing customers can be an excellent way to reach potential new customers. FaceBook, Twitter, FriendFeed, blogs, You-Tube and Digg are examples of sites that are being utilized by technology companies reaching out to old and new customers. These sites can also be a great place to receive feedback on existing products as a sort of virtual focus group. Creating a fan page on FaceBook or a Twitter account is a great forum to allow consumers the opportunity to comment and interact with the company.

Logan-based New Dawn Technologies provides soft-ware, training and support to hundreds of justice profes-sionals across the country. It uses social media in a variety of ways to reach out to customers. Because it has such a unique product niche, creating a Twitter account and Facebook page has allowed the company to connect and expand reach to its target demographic and maintain relationships easily and efficiently.

“Social media gives us a platform to strengthen interpersonal relationships with customers and prospects. We’re able to get in on the conversation early with prospects, customers, and even competitors,” says Marlene Martineau, director of marketing at New Dawn Technologies. “Facebook and Twitter allow us to track keywords, which lets us ‘listen in’ on what people are saying about us, our products, and our markets. Our customer services manager maintains relationships with many of our customers via social media.”

Cheap by Nature

During today’s economy, companies of all types are looking for new, effective and cost-efficient ways to promote products and release news about updates and product advances. Social media is cheap by nature since it actually takes more of a human capitol effort than marketing dollars. According to Forrester Research, more 80 percent of Americans use social media monthly, so it’s highly likely that those consumers are online using a social networking site in one form or another. Taking the time to research appropriate platforms and outreach tactics can prove beneficial and lead to great results depending on the individual company’s goals.

Face Time with the Boss

To facilitate technology companies’ visibility as leaders in their industry, many companies set up a blog on their company Website. This allows for the CEO, or other representatives, to post thoughts on industry news and highlights, allowing them to be seen as a thought leader or expert on the subject. Comments and feedback create a forum for individuals to interact with the CEO and create a mini social networking site directly on the company’s website.

CEOs should know that social media is unpredictable. It’s an ever-changing medium and while most companies prefer to have control of messaging, in the social media realm it is impossible. While every company wants to create buzz they have to be prepared for potential online backlash. It’s impossible to please everyone and so the best strategy is to be prepared. A publicist or marketing director can develop a set of responses to unfortunate comments and feedback that can be pre-approved by the legal team, if necessary, to facilitate a quick and professional response.

Whether a company has an online social media presence or not, it is most likely the company will be talked about online at some point. So it is in a company’s best interest to be prepared so as to be not caught off guard.

Social media has evolved the way that companies are interacting with consumers. Phone calls to customer service with long call waiting lines and un-answered emails are soon to be a thing of the past. Consumers have come to expect companies to have an online presence and even demand it. Technology companies that embrace social media should experience a healthy return of investment ranging from customer satisfaction, old customers becoming return customers, and new sales leads.